February 7 '07: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta issued new pandemic guidelines last week, the New York Times reported. The guidelines came after state and local government and health officials asked the federal government for suggestions on how to prepare and respond to a pandemic such as bird flu.

The new guidelines were developed after the CDC and the University of Michigan researched more than 44 towns and cities' approach to the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic.

Under the new regulations, schools, ballparks, and movie theaters would be closed for up to three months. State and city borders would stay open, however, so that vital food and medicines could be transported. Federal health officials said the measures only would help buy time for the government to manufacture and then distribute vaccines.

Also, the levels of the pandemic have been categorized like hurricanes, using 1 - 5 as markers indicating the seriousness of the outbreak. Category 1 would have up to 90,000 people die from a flu outbreak. The Times reported that in one year usually about 36,000 people die from influenza. A Category 5 would have up to 1.8 million people dead.

Officials told the Times that preventative measures to slow the spread of a virus, including quarantines and sequestration of whole communities is a tricky situation because of the timing. Too early and communities will suffer great financial losses; too late and there could be hundreds of victims.